Advertisement THE NEW YOR.KER. STOR.E.COM ORDER YOUR 2007 NEW YORKER DESK DIARY TODAY THE NlWYOItKEIt J CHRIS NEAL Available in four colors, with an elegant new cover design. Order online to save $5 and receive FREE personalization. the n ewyo rke rsto re. com 1-877 -408-4269 M-F, 9 A.M.-6 P.M., E.5.1. Standard diary: $34.95 Personalized diary: $37.95 Add $7.00 U.S. S&H, $10.00 Canada also avai lable at THE CARTOON BANK www.cartoonbank.com 22 THE NEW YORKER, AUGUST 7 & 14, 2006 drug kingpin's mistress, take off for Cuba, speed- ing across the Caribbean in a twin-engine Super Cat.-D.D. (In wide release.) MONSTER HOUSE Directed by Gil Kenan and produced by Robert Zemeckis and Steven Spielberg, this animated horror film, about a group of kids terrorized by a house that gobbles up all who pass by, has the scares and the wit of a great amusement-park ride. The motion-capture technology that Ze- meckis developed for "The Polar Express" (the ac- tors are filmed and then exaggeratedly computer- animated) is even better suited to this kind of creepy story. The screenplay is a boilerplate kid's film (the adults are clueless, and it's up to the children to save the day), but the snappy dialogue pops with a child's-eye view of adult conversa- tion, and the thrills-and there are many-are wonderfully scary; they bring a smile after the fright. With voice work by Steve Buscemi, Jon Heder, and, as the monster house, the belching, motion-captured face of Kathleen Turner.-Bruce Diones (In wide release.) NO DIRECTION HOME The historical and musical importance of Martin Scorsese's epic 2005 documentary, about Bob Dylan's rise in the early nineteen-sixties to folk-music idol and plugged-in poet-hero, is self-evident. The film's great pathos, however, is as much a product of its flaws as of its virtues. Dylan, born in 1941, and Scorsese, born in 1942, were young men in Green- wich Village at the same time. Yet Dylan became a cultural icon while Scorsese was still an N.Y.U. student, and Scorsese, when he later took his place in the wider world, did so as a champion of a by- gone age: his best films feature jazz, Martinis, and characters belonging to or nostalgic for the pre- rock era. Scorsese knew nothing of the Village scene where Dylan played, and the film's rich array of film dips and interviews, put together with a con- ventional television-biography technique, may as well have been about ancient times and distant places. This conservative, hagiographic documentary is both a wistful, deferential tribute to the forever- young Dylan and a sad admission that Scorsese, in effect, has always been old.-R.B. (Walter Reade Theatre; Aug. 6.) PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: DEAD MAN.S CHEST This is the second part of a trilogy, Disney having decided that there were dense thematic issues, not to mention narrative niceties, that could not be con- strained within a single "Pirates" film; any financial consideration was, of course, entirely secondary. Once again, we accompany Captain Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp) as he pursues his fate-or the nee- dle of his compass-across the waters. Keira Knight- ley resumes her romantic role, as does Orlando Bloom, although his presence is not exactly strong enough to rip a hole in the screen. The director, Gore Verbinski, may marshal the action into some kind of order, but the show is truly run (and strung out) by the special effects; why else would a writh- ing sea monster, having munched on one ship, come back for a second helping? If the film works, it is largely because of Depp, whose performance owes more and more to Mary Pickford and less to Doug- las Fairbanks. Depp continues to dominate the pro- ceedings, aided in this instance by Bill Nighy, who- together with his animated beard-breathes life into the deceased Davy Jones.-Anthony Lane (7/24/06) (In wide release.) A SCANNER DARKLY The director Richard Linklater digitally photo- graphed Philip K. Dick's 1977 futuristic-nightmare novel as a movie with actors, then turned the images into animation, adding oscillating colors and shadows. The effect is to make the material- with its paranoid fears about mind-destroying drugs---even more menacing and strange. Keanu Reeves is the dissolving hero, a narc who takes on the personality of an addict; Robert Downey, Jr., is his weirdly overexplicit sidekick; Woody Harrelson is a hysterical goof; and Winona Ryder is a user who may be playing a double game. Some of the movie is startlingly funny, but it luxuriates in a kind of hip despair that may wear out a viewer well before the end.-D.D. (In wide release.) SCOOP In Woody Allen's latest, Woody is a cut-rate magi- cian known as the Great Splendini, and Scarlett Johansson, who is charming, is his protégée, Son- dra, a college-newspaper reporter who gets a tip on a big story from a dead journalist (Ian Mc- Shane) conjured up by Splendini. The conceit is barely tolerable, but it gets the movie under way, and Woody and Scarlett are fitfully amusing as an unlikely pair of sleuths who fun around London quarrelling and putting people on in posh houses and private dubs. To enjoy it, however, you have to love Woody's fumbling, stumbling delivery, with its many hesitations and sudden explosions of worry or distaste. At the age of seventy, he's certainly not hiding his crotchets. Hugh Jackman plays a pow- erful man who mayor may not have committed a string of murders.-D.D. (In wide release.) SUPERMAN RETURNS After a lengthy interlude, the Man of Steel is back. His zeal to cleanse the world of evil remains as un- swerving as ever, as does his belief that the addition of eyeglasses constitutes a deep disguise. In Bryan Sing- er's film, he is played by Brandon Routh, who ap- pears to be under instructions to deliver his finest im- personation of Christopher Reeve. Also present are Lois Lane (Kate Bosworth), who has gained a child but lost much of her zip and wit, and Lex Luthor (Kevin Spacey), whose plan to hatch a new landmass made of crystal seems unwieldy even by his standards. The story jerks and drags along, with holes where the funny lines are meant to be, plus a number of enigmas (the true father of Lois's son, for instance) that come across as merely confusing. Nevertheless, comic-book fans will gorge themselves on the set pieces and on the now familiar sight of Spacey play- ing the devil-silken of voice, bare of morals, and infinitely bored.-A.L. (7/3/06) (In wide release.) 13 TZAMETI Reviewed this week in The Current Cinema. (Film Forum. ) THE THREE MUSKETEERS Undiluted delight. The scale is lavish, the story clearly told, and Douglas Fairbanks is the darting-est of D' Artagnans, energizing every scene he's in not just with his unpredictable agility and swiftness but also with an italicized ardor-which he often, wisely, plays for laughs. This Ð'Artagnan's favorite expression is "Marvellous!" and Fairbanks is pretty marvellous, too, whether he's romping over rooftops with his true love, Constance, or engaging the evil Milady de Wm- ter in a fight for the queen's jewels that turns into an apache dance. Fred Niblo directed. Released in 1921. Silent.-Michael Sragow (Film Forum; Aug. 10.) YOU. ME AND DUPREE Kate Hudson and the heavy-browed Matt Dillon, who don't really belong together as actors, get mar- ried; the newlyweds take into their house a life- loving bum, played by Owen Wilson, who proceeds to wreck the union. The basic premise is slightly of- fensive: the Wilson character is presented as a test of everyone's humanity, but he's actually a pain in the neck whom anyone in their right mind, and espe- cially newlyweds, would immediately throw out. Wil- son runs around bare-assed and is meant to be lov- able, which may be a jerk's last illusion. The direction by Anthony and Joe Russo is slightly off in every scene-perhaps because the material never made sense in the first place. With Michael Douglas as Hudson's sourpuss father.-D.D. (In wide release.) Also Playing JOHN TUCKER MUST DIE: In wide release. LITTLE MAN: In wide release. MY SUPER EX-GIRLFRIEND: In wide release. WHO KILLED THE ELECTRIC CAR?: In wide release. REVIVALS, CLASSICS, ETC. Titles with a dagger are reviewed above. ANTHOLOGY FILM ARCHIVES 32 Second Ave., at 2nd St. (212-505-5181)-Selected screenings. "Kino Summer Series." Aug. 2 at 7:30: "Time Regained" (1999, Raúl Ruiz; in French). .